Will anyone buy a $1200 tablet that connects to a keyboard dock?

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Samsung unveiled a handful of its Windows 8 hardware entries at a media event in New York City Monday night, including two Ativ (pronounced like "active" without the "c," not like "creative") "Smart PCs." While none of the models shown were final production units, according to the reps (despite an anticipated launch on October 26), we spent some time messing around with the hardware to see how compelling the offerings will be when Windows 8 finally lands.

The two most interesting items were convertible tablet-laptop hybrids (choose your own word mashup adventure: tablatop, laplet, tablaptop, tablertible, convertitop). The higher end of the two is the Samsung Ativ Smart PC 700T, an 11.6-inch tablet that docks into a keyboard base and can fold into a laptop form.

The 700T model, displaying an app from Jamie Oliver.

The 700T docked and folded into laptop pose.

The black S Pen that accompanies the 700T.

The back side of the 700T, with its oddly placed rear camera.

The power and sleep buttons next to the USB port on the 700T (a microSD port was placed on the same edge, though the reps would not guarantee it would appear in final production models).

The 700T uses an Intel Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, and has an impressive 1920×1080 display with ten-finger touch. A short "S Pen" is embedded in a slot in the back of the device, and a USB 3.0 port sits next to power and lock switches along the top. The tablet includes both a 2MP front- and 8MP rear-facing camera.

The 500T also has two cameras, an S Pen, and an 11.6-inch display, but only 1366×768 resolution and five-finger touch capabilities. The USB port is 2.0 rather than 3.0, and inside is an Intel Atom Z2760 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 64GB SSD.

The 500T model, from the side.

The underside of the 500T.

The top of the 500T.

The S Pen that comes embedded in the back of the 500T.

The back of the 500T (velcro strip is extra).

The keyboard on the 500T and 700T keyboard docks seem full size, but the trackpads are compromised a bit.

We found that the tablets popped very easily in and out of their keyboard docks and folded open and closed smoothly. However, when they were open, the tablet screens wobbled on their hinges pretty easily (reps were standing by to assure us that these were not production models).

The combined tablet-plus-dock packages were a bit chunky, with none of the slim feel of a good Ultrabook. The docks were anchored to stands, so we couldn't pick them up and carry them around, but the tablets were detachable and felt pretty heavy, even for their near-12-inch sizes. The 700T tablet sans dock weighs about 1.89 pounds, while the 500T weight 1.65 pounds. Samsung has not provided weight estimates with the docks attached.

A closeup of the eject button on the 700T's keyboard dock.

We were actually impressed at how well the S Pen worked on the 700T. One love, Ars Technica.

The docks themselves are nothing special, with slightly mushy keys and petite trackpads. The 500T's trackpad was barely responsive on the desktop side of Windows 8, though again, reps blamed the pre-production models. One of the better uses of a keyboard dock that we've seen is to use the space to add battery life, as with Lenovo's IdeaTab Lynx (16 hours with its keyboard base, 8 hours without), and additional ports. Unfortunately, Samsung's docks only add human input devices, nothing more. Samsung specifies that the 700T has a 49 Watt-hour battery while the 500T's is 30 Watt-hours, though these numbers haven't been translated to usage estimates (the international variations of these tablets are estimated at 8 and 13.5 hours, respectively).

The most disconcerting part of the two convertibles are their prices. The 500T may be slightly easier to justify at $749.99 for both tablet and dock, though with its modest specs we reserve judgment for when we actually get our hands on final production hardware. The 700T, on other hand, starts at $1,199.99. While the hardware specification is more-than-decent, the size and weight make it not quite ideal as a tablet, and the quality of keyboard dock gives us pause when treating it as a laptop.

We have no doubt that the number of customers who now own both tablets and laptops has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. That said, we wonder whether users will buy into a device that fills both roles, at a potential usability cost, with virtually no monetary savings. These convertilaptopilets may be headed for a similarly sized niche as the one that gaming laptops have occupied for several years now—capable for certain tasks, but with enough compromises that they're not suited to the mainstream user.

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Casey Johnston
Casey Johnston is the former Culture Editor at Ars Technica, and now does the occasional freelance story. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Applied Physics. Twitter@caseyjohnston